Nominations to the Boards of Directors of LRWC & LRW(LRC
Annual General Meeting 29 April 2016 1
Lawyers Rights Watch Canada
Nominations to the Boards of Directors of LRWC & LRW(LRC
Annual General Meeting 29 April 2016 1
Marjorie Cohn
Thomas Jefferson School of Law
3792 Goldfind street,
San Diego, CA, USA, 92103
Gail Davidson,
3220 W.13th Ave
Vancouver, BC, V6K 2V5
Julius Grey
1155 René-Lévesque W Suite 1715 ,
Montréal Québec H3B 2K8, Canada
Andrew Guaglio
Addario Law Group
171 John Street, Suite 101,
Toronto, ON M5T 1X3
Leo McGrady Q.C.
McGrady Baugh & Whyte,
P.O Box 12101 Nelson Square, 808 Nelson Street,
Vancouver, B.C. V6Z 2H2, Canada
Heather Neun
416 Union Street,
Vancouver, BC V6A 2B6, Canada
David F. Sutherland
David F. Sutherland & Associates
2000 Ontario Street
Vancouver, BC V5T 2W7
Grace Woo
3831 Dunbar St.,
Vancouver, BC, Canada V6S 2E1
Lawyers Rights Watch (Legal Research) Canada
Siobhán Airey
1209 – 110 Boteler St,
Ottawa ON K1N 8W8.
Clive Ansley,
Ansley & Company
306-576 English Avenue,
Courtenay, BC, Canada, V9N 2N3
Gavin Magrath
Magrath O'Connor LLP
#306-73 Richmond St West ,
Toronto, ON, Canada, M5H 4E8
Margaret (Peggy) Stanier, (Treasurer 2010-2011)
Stevens Virgin
Box 12179, 1301 – 808 Nelson Street,
Vancouver BC V6K 2H2
Vani Selvarajah
25 Ridley Crescent
Markham, Ontario
L3S 3P5 Canada
Brian Samuels
#1400 - 1125 Howe St.
Vancouver, BC Canada V6Z 2K8
Maureen Webb
#303 – 2088 Barclay St.,
Vancouver, BC, Canada, V6G 1L5
Bios of Nominees to LRWC
Marjorie Cohn
Marjorie Cohn is a prominentactivist/scholar. She lectures throughout the world and provides legal and political commentary on human rights andU.S.foreign policy.She is former president of the National Lawyers Guild, deputy secretary general of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, and has been awarded professor emerita status at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, where she has taught for 25 years.A longtime criminal defense attorney,her most recent book is “Drones and Targeted Killing: Legal, Moral, and Geopolitical Issues.” She is a frequent columnist forHuffingtonPost, Truthout, Truthdig, Counterpunch, CommonDreams, andZNet.Her work is archived at http://marjoriecohn.com/. Professor Cohn was named one ofSan Diego's top attorneys in academics, and was awarded the Witkin Award for Excellence in the law teaching by the San Diego Law Library Justice Foundation.She was also namedPeace Scholar of the Year Award by the Peace and Justice Studies Association, has been listed in Who’s Who in American Law, was a recipient of the Amnesty International-San Diego, Digna Ochoa Human Rights Defender Award, and received theSanta Clara University School of Law Alumni Special Achievement Award. Professor Cohn debated the war in Afghanistan at the prestigious Oxford Union.
Gail Davidson
Gail Davidson is a lawyer (retired status) whose work is devoted to promoting global adherence to international human rights and humanitarian law through advocacy, education and research. She is the founder and Executive Director of LRWC. She is the co-founder of Lawyers against the War. She received the UBC Great Trekker award (2014) for her work promoting human rights and work with UBC students and a Courage in Law award (2013) from the UBC Indigenous Law Students Association for her contributions to education and advocacy about First Nations’ rights.
Julius Grey
Julius Grey was educated in Montreal where he obtained a BA (Great Distinction) in 1970, a BCL in 1971, and an MA in 1973. He also studied at Oxford University where he received a BCL (1st class) in 1973. His professional experience includes Research Assistant for the Law Reform Commission (Sentencing) in 1972, Stagiaire at O'Brien Hall Saunders (1970-1974), Lawyer at Lapointe Rosenstein (1974-1976), Counsel at Lazare, Altschuler (1976-78). He has his own law offices since 1978 where he is Senior Partner. He has taught at McGill University, since 1975, (tenured 1983 – 2003) a variety of legal subjects including Civil Liberties, Administrative Law, Immigration Law, Family Law and Statute Law.
He also taught at the University of Montreal and the Quebec Bar. Julius Grey is presently a member of the International Commission of Jurists, the Canadian Bar Association, the American Bar Association and the Canadian Human Rights Foundation, where he was Vice-President (1982-85) and President (1985-1988) and was a member of Fondation des Gouverneurs du Barreau. He is the author of Immigration in Canada, (1984), numerous legal articles, notes and comments and non-legal articles in newspapers and magazines. He has appeared before the Courts at all levels, Civil and Criminal divisions, Administrative, Municipal, Superior, Appeal (Quebec), Federal Court and the Supreme Court of Canada. In April 2004 he was awarded the Médaille du Barreau du Québec which is the highest distinction a member can receive. In 2015 he was awarded a 40th anniversary of the Quebec Charter medal by the Commission des Droits de la Personne.
Andrew Guaglio
Andrew Guaglio is a criminal defence lawyer at the Addario Law Group LLP in Toronto. He graduated from the University of British Columbia Faculty of Law in 2013. While at UBC, he focused his energies on criminal law and the protection of human rights, working with the UBC Law Innocence Project, Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada, and UBC’s Immigration and Refugee legal clinic. After graduating, he articled at the criminal law firm Peck and Company in Vancouver, interned with the Prosecution Division of the International Criminal Court, and clerked for the British Columbia Court of Appeal.
Leo McGrady Q.C.
Leo McGrady has practiced law in Vancouver for many years in the fields of labour law, human rights, and intellectual property law. He has also taught law at the Faculty of Law at UBC, for the legal profession in the Continuing Legal Education Program, and is presently teaching in the Labour Studies Program at Simon Fraser University. His Guide to the Law of Protests in British Columbia has been used extensively in BC, across Canada, and in the U.S..
Heather Neun
Heather is a lawyer and previously worked at a firm specializing in labour, aboriginal and human rights law. She currently works as union counsel for a trade union. Heather has a long history of human rights advocacy in Latin America. Prior to becoming a lawyer, she worked at the community level promoting human rights in Central America, including as a volunteer field volunteer in Guatemala in 1988. In 2009 she volunteered with the Centre for Justice and International Law (CEJIL). As a member of CEJIL's Mexico litigation team, she helped research and write submissions on behalf of two victims before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Heather has been an active volunteer with LRWC since 2004, and monitored human rights violations and attacks on justice system operators in Guatemala. She currently monitors the situation in Colombia and has participated in two international delegations of jurists to Colombia in 2012 and 2014. In 2013, she co-wrote an amicus brief with Lawyers Without Borders Canada in support of the petition of a major group of Colombian human rights lawyers before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. She helped write an amicus brief on equality rights in support of the petition of the Hul’qumi’num Treaty Group against Canada, which was heard by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington, D.C. in October 2011. She holds a Masters of Philosophy in International Development Studies from the University of Sussex, U.K. She has an LL.B. from UBC. In 2008, she did course work in international human rights law studies at University for Peace in Costa Rica. She is currently pursuing her LL.M. at UBC.
David F. Sutherland
David F. Sutherland haspracticed civil litigation with a special interest in freedom of speech since 1980. He has represented media at all levels of court and has provided a full range of media law advice to journalists, editors, publishers, broadcasters, and web hosts, including pre-publication advice regarding proposed copy, libel defence, contempt defence, advice respecting Youth Criminal Justice Act and other statutory and discretionary publication bans, freedom of information, hate, obscenity, search warrants, production orders, and subpoenas directed to the newsroom, copyright, access to courts, tribunals and other public process and information, Charter challenges, source-confidentiality, privacy, trade-libel, preventive measures, claims-handling, insurance coverage, industry self-regulation, human rights, etc. He is listed in peer-rated publications including Best Lawyers In Canada and L'Expert Guide to the Leading Cross-Border Litigation Lawyers in Canada, respecting defamation and media law. In addition to media law, he handles litigation arising out of human rights, and engineering failure. David spent 9 years on the Board and 6 years on the Executive of the BC Civil Liberties Association prior to joining the Board of LRWC. Recently, he has chaired the board of Lawyers' Rights Watch Canada.
Grace Li Xiu Woo
Grace Li Xiu Woo, B.A. (MUN) 1970, LL.B.(UBC) 1990, LLM (UQAM) 2000, LLD (U de M) 2008 participated in trade with the Peoples Republic of China in the late `70`s, practiced law in Chinatown, worked at the Immigration and Refugee Board and taught in the Program of Legal Studies for Native People at the University of Saskatchewan. She is the author of Ghost Dancing with Colonialism: Decolonization and Indigenous Rights at the Supreme Court of Canada (UBC Press 2011), helped write the LRWC amicus curia brief in support of the Hul’qumi’num Treaty Group’s application to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and published an analysis of violations of Omar Khadr’s rights under the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention against Torture. Interests include public education concerning international human rights, Indigenous rights, colonial history and neural developmental disorders such as FASD.
Bios of Nominees to LRW(LR)C
Siobhan Airey
Siobhan Airey is completing her doctorate in law at the University of Ottawa on the international governance of Official Development Assistance or development aid. She has worked as a professional research and social policy consultant, and in international development. She was the planning and management coordinator for the “Global Peace and Dignity” series of public talks co-sponsored by LRWC and UBC Continuing Studies in 2008. Since then Siobhan has continued to work with LRWC on education, research and planning and served for a number of years as LRWC’s Bangladesh monitor.
Clive Ansley
Mr. Ansley has been actively involved with China and Sino-Canadian relations for about 50 years. He speaks and reads Chinese and holds both undergraduate and graduate degrees in Chinese Studies and Law from Canadian universities, as well as a graduate degree in Chinese Law from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. A former Canadian professor of Chinese History, Civilization, and Law, Mr. Ansley taught Chinese Law for six years at the University of Windsor and the University of British Columbia. He has also taught in several Chinese universities. He has appeared in a number of foreign court proceedings and before Canadian tribunals as a recognized expert on Chinese law. Mr. Ansley litigated in China for fourteen years, and spent five years representing foreign clients in Taiwan. Mr. Ansley now dedicates most of his working time to his life long interest in human rights.
Gavin Magrath
Gavin Magrath’s practice focuses on Canadian litigation liability arising out of international transportation and logistics activities. He has represented forwarders, carriers, ship owners, and cargo interests in litigation and dispute resolution and has appeared on their behalf before the Superior and Federal Courts, as well as before various administrative tribunals. In addition to his Maritime and Transport practice, Gavin assists clients with a variety of civil and commercial litigation matters, including conflicts referrals, commercial and contract disputes, employment litigation, and privacy and e-commerce issues. He also maintains a robust pro bono and public interest practice including research and litigation support for international human rights and humanitarian law issues, as well as acting as counsel or providing direct pro bono legal services to non-profit and charitable organizations. Gavin obtained undergraduate degrees in Philosophy (B.A.) and Business (H.B.Comm.) from (Queen's University), obtained his law degree from Dalhousie University, and recently obtained an LL.M from the University of Toronto. Between his undergraduate and law school, Gavin worked for two years with the internationally renowned Boston Consulting Group.
Margaret Stanier (Peggy)
Peggy Stanier is a research lawyer at Stevens Virgin. She has taught legal research and writing and practiced as a civil litigator, litigation solicitor and research lawyer in the areas of motor vehicle accident, personal injury, insurance, corporate/commercial, estates and administrative law. She focuses on the research and analysis of complex legal issues and on writing appellate factums, opinion letters, chambers applications and trial submissions. She has appeared as counsel in the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal of British Columbia and the Federal Court, Trial Division and Court of Appeal. Ms. Stanier
is an active member of the Legal Research Section and Women Lawyers Forum of the Canadian Bar Association
Brian Samuels
Brian Samuels, P. Eng. (Civil), MBA, LL.B, C. Arb. is a senior trial and appeal lawyer. He practiced with Russell and DuMoulin (now Faskens) in Vancouver from 1987 until 1993, and then with Lee & Associates in Denver, Colorado until 1994, before starting his independent practice. He is the author two legal textbooks on construction law, and co-editor and contributor to the textbook Expert Evidence in British Columbia Civil Proceedings. In addition to his construction law practice, Brian has successfully argued important civil rights cases, including the landmark Charter damages case, Ward v. City of Vancouver (Supreme Court of Canada), the Polygamy Reference case (BC Supreme Court), has been involved in privacy challenges before the BC Information and Privacy Commissioner, and various campaigns on behalf of Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada. Brian is also licenced to practice in the US, and has conducted cases in both Federal and State courts.
Vani Selvarajah
Vani Selvarajah is corporate and commerciallawyer at SaadLaw.She provides legal counsel to clients in a number of different capacities including corporate acquisitions and divestitures, corporate formation and structuring, partnerships and joint ventures and financing transactions. Vani is passionate about advocating for human rights and has dedicated part of her practice to international human rights law. She has been actively involved with Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada and has advocated for a variety of international issues on behalf of LRWC by addressing the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. Vani was called to the Ontario Bar in 2012 after obtaining her Bachelor of Laws degree from University of Alberta in 2011. Prior to law school, Vani completed her Honours Bachelor of Arts from University of Waterloo, where she majored in Legal studies and Criminology with a minor in Business. Vani completed her articles with a leading immigration and refugee law firm in Canada, Jackman & Associates prior to being called to the Bar. While completing her law degree, Vani volunteered with the Edmonton Community Legal Centre, providing legal services to low-income individuals within the community.